The present invention relates to a system for automatically processing and printing the contents and the format of a text.
More particularly it refers to a system in which a draft of the text is first prepared and stored, and subsequently modified into a final text which is stored for final printing.
In such systems the final text is usually stored on magnetic tapes or other recording media. One of the purposes of so storing the final text is for using it for the high speed reprinting of the text, as required for instance for printing a large number of standard form letters.
Another purpose is to do a so-called semi-standard form letter work, in which a standard form letter is reprinted many times with only the address or other personal information added. Additionally, the same final text can be used for reprinting it in different page formats. Also the final text is available at a later time for further correction, without the need of retyping it again in its entirety.
Yet another purpose is to use the final text record for subsequent text composing and margining operations. Still other purposes are known in the art.
Among the known systems of this kind, there is a first category based on the use of two tapes or other recording media, one for recording the draft of the text and the other for recording the final text.
Some examples of one type of system in this first category are disclosed in U.S. Pat. to Tholstrup et al, 2,859,851, Blodgett et al, 3,025,941 and Knudsen et al, 3,414,013. This type of system operates in the following manner. While the operator types the draft of the text, this draft is printed and at the same time is punched on a tape. The corrections are then normally evidenced by marking them on the printed draft. To enter the corrections, the operator then puts the reader of the first punched tape in the reading mode, and starts a reprinting operation during which the machine reads the first tape, prints its contents on the final sheet and at the same time punches a fresh tape.
When the printer arrives at a point where a correction is to be made, the operator stops the reprinting and repunching operation and types in the correction, which is thereby printed in the final page and punched in the second page.
After this correction, the operator resumes normal automatic printing of the first draft tape from the point following the correction until he finds the location when the next correction is to be made.
It is therefore apparent that in these systems the text correction process is based on transferring the draft text from the first to the second tape line by line, interrupting the transfer at the points requiring correction so as to avoid transfer of incorrect words, typing in and recording on the second tape the correct words in the place of the incorrect ones during this interruption of the transfer, and then resuming the transfer.
This category of system, besides having the disadvantage of requiring two tapes which affects both cost and ease of operation in handling the tapes in the machine, has the drawback that the operator cannot access any point of the text to make a correction without first reprinting the whole text each time up to the point at which the error appears. A further drawback is that it requires continuous attention by the operator during the reprinting of the draft in order to stop exactly at the place to be corrected. All of the above disadvantages make the correction process a slow and tedious one.
In the first category of systems, based on the transfer between two recording media, a second type of system is known which operates substantially in the manner described above, except that the operator has the ability to command the tape-to-tape transfer operation in a line-by-line manner. Therefore, in the case where a page requires a correction for instance in the 15th line, in the first tape of systems the operator starts the reprinting and transfer operations at the first line and the operation continues in a fast automatic mode until stopped by the operator at the 14th line. In the second type of system the operator has to depress a button 14 times which commands the transfer of a line between the two tapes without printing. The operator has also the choice of combining the two methods so that he can for instance command a first transfer with printing up to, for example, the 10th line and then continue up to the 16th line on a line-by-line basis.
A system of this second type is disclosed in the U.S. Pat. to Ross No. 3,490,004 (see also Sims et al U.S. Pat. No. 3,297,124) which uses two magnetic tapes.
Therefore this second type system in the first category still requires two tapes for the text correction operation, and additionally requires the operator to manually go through the entire text in order to locate the points where he has to insert a correction, which still results in a slow and difficult operation.
A second category of systems in known in which the recording medium for recording the final text is the same as that which is used for recording the draft of the text.
Systems of this second category are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. to Locklar et al 3,260,340, Jones et al 3,512,132 and 3,512,137, and Kolpek 3,674,125. These systems, however, present the same drawbacks with regard to the search of the lines to be modified, since they require the operator to manually go through all the correct lines of the text before locating the line to be corrected.
A modification of the above systems is the one described in the U.S. Pat. to Bernier No. 3,579,193, in which during the correction phase the operator can speed up the skipping of correct lines by using a "paragraph skip" button. However, this requires that the operator record an end of paragraph signal when typing the draft. Additionally, it still requires the operator to go through the entire text, even though it skips sections longer than a line.
A third category of system is one based on the use of a page display for diaplaying the page to be corrected.
An example of this category of system is disclosed in the U.S. Pat. to Damman et al No. 3,248,705 in which the text is introduced through a remote keyboard into the memory of a main central processor located at a certain distance away and is visually displayed on a cathode ray screen. The operator can amend the visually displayed text by actuating suitable keys of the keyboard and in this way, the contents of the memory of the central processor are altered. When the text is then to be printed, the processor supplies the coded characters of the correct text to the typewriter. This printing system, however, has the disadvantage of being costly owing to the necessity of being connected to a main central processor. Moreover, the sytem does not automatically provide a first tape with the final text. Additionally, it still requires the operator to go through the entire text, by manually shifting a marker point on the screen, in order to arrive at the location to be corrected. Another system of this type having the same disadvantages is disclosed in the U.S. Pat. to Goldsberry No. 3,618,032 issued later with a published corresponding French application No. 2,025,653.
A variation of the display type system is the one disclosed in the U.S. Pat. to Adams No. 3,380,568 in which the marker on a CRT display is replaced by a mechanical converter (FIG. 7) to locate within the page the zone to be corrected. Therefore, during the correction operation, the accessing of the line to be corrected is accomplished by manually measuring with the converter the coordinates of the point to be corrected.
A somewhat similar system is the one described in the British Pat. to Dirks No. 786,037 and the German Pat. publication No. 1,086,072. In this system, the draft is first recorded on a first page. During the correction operation the operator scans, with the use of means not disclosed, the entire text line-by-line until he finds the point to be corrected. He then inserts a mark in the memory to identify the correction point and at the same time inserts the correct words on a second tape. The mark is later used by the machine for automatically merging the two tapes and so inserting the correction in place of the incorrect words. Therefore the accessing of the point to be corrected still requires the operation to go through the entire text.
Finally, a fourth category of systems is known, in which some numbering of the printed lines is used to help the operator in the correction operation.
A first system in this category is described in U.S. Pat. to Bafour et al No. 2,762,485 (other features of the same machine, but not related to the subject matter in question, are described in Bafour U.S. Pat. No. 2,947,357).
Bafour et al describes an automatic composing machine wherein the draft of the text is typed on the keyboard 10' (FIG. 2) and at the same time printed on a sheet and simultaneously recorded on a first paper tape 1A. During this phase of operation the machine automatically numbers the lines by printing the progressive line numbers on the same sheet and recording the same number in the corresponding location of the paper tape. After reviewing the draft, the operator, in order to correct it, introduces into the machine a second tape 1Z (the correction tape) and retypes all the lines which must be modified, together with their reference numbers. These lines and their reference numbers are recorded on the second tape 1Z. After this, the two tapes are introduced in corresponding reading units 21A and 21Z (FIG. 6). While the two tapes are read together, a selector 43 compares line-by-line the reference numbers stored on the tape 1A with the ones stored on the tape 1Z. When these numbers are different, the selector sends the line stored on the first tape 1A to the printer 64. When, on the contrary, these numbers are equal, this means that the line stored on tape 1A is incorrect and so the selector sends to the printer 64 the line stored on the second tape 1Z. In this way, the printer 64 prints only the correct lines, whereby a fair copy as amended by the operator is obtained.
From the above it appears that the Bafour et al system has the disadvantage of requiring at least two tapes for the correction operation and a total of three tape if it is desired, as in the case of the present invention, to obtain a final tape with the correct text.
Moreover, in the Bafour et al system the line numbers printed on the draft sheet give the operator very limited help in locating the lines to be corrected. In fact, by looking at the line numbers the operator can identify the number of a line he wishes to correct without counting all the preceding lines in the page. But this is the only facility available since he cannot use the same numbers as "addresses" for accessing any specific desired line to be modified on the tape. On the contrary, the system is not provided with addressing means capable of searching and locating a selected position on the tape identified by an address given by the operator, but rather the tapes are only scanned sequentially and completely by the machine without the operator being able to intervene in the tape scanning and merging process. Therefore, should the operator desire to switch repeatedly from the draft typing mode to a correction mode, he must switch to a new correction tape each time and this is practically impossible. In other words, the numbering of the lines on the printed draft and on the second (or correction) tape only serves the purpose of creating a one-to-one rigid correspondence among line positions on the sheet, line positions on the first (or draft) tape and line positions on the second (or correction) tape. This rigid correspondence between printed sheet and the two tapes is similar to the Dirks' system cited above.
This rigidity, which is due to the lack of addressing means for the tape, has serious consequences in the correction procedure. As a matter of fact, if the operator wishes to make successive correction operations in the same text, which is usually necessary, he has to start again each time from the beginning and prepare a new correction tape and then merge it again with the draft tape. For the same reason, even if he desires to correct the page only once, he is bound to enter the corrections in the exact numbering order, so that for instance he cannot correct the third line after having entered a correction in the tenth, unless he decides to restart an entire page correction process by repunching a new correction tape.
Moreover, since there are no addressing means for the tape, the operator cannot access a line for the purpose of modifying only a part of it. All he can do is to indicate to the machine a new complete line to be substituted for an old one, but from this point on he has no more control over the system.
The numbering of the lines on the printed draft page is also used in the system disclosed in the German application of Gonsior Ser. No. 1,944,443 which describes a word processing machine comprising a first magnetic tape 11 for storing the text keyed in on the typewriter 6. Before typing a text, the operator must assign it to an address code representing the location where recording of the text is to start on the tape, otherwise the text cannot be located in the subsequent processing of the tape. After this initializing operation, the operator keys in on a line-by-line basis, the draft of the text on the keyboard to record it on the first magnetic tape 21. After this recording, the operator commands the printing of the draft from the tape 21 on a form which has pre-printed numbers on its lines, for example from 00 to 99. Optionally the numbers of the lines can be printed by the machine during the print-out of the draft of the text but not during the typing in thereof. The machine also comprises a second read/write station for a second magnetic tape.
Thereafter, when the operator wishes to amend the draft of the text he must first introduce the address code of the text to be amended in the read/write station of the first tape, which thus searches on the tape for the corresponding initial location. After this, the operator enters a second address in the read/write station of the second tape for positioning the second tape at the proper initial position for storing the final edition of the text.
Having so initialized the two tape stations, the operator starts a tape-to-tape transfer operation, during which the correction occurs as follows. If for instance the operator has to correct line 19, he keys on the programming keyboard 28 the number 18, and by so doing it causes the machine to transfer the first 18 lines without change from the first (draft) to the second (final) tape and then automatically stops. Then the operator switches to the second tape station in order to key-in the characters on the second tape at the points where a correction is to be made. After a mistake has been corrected the operator commands the restart of the tape-to-tape transfer until he encounters the next line in which a mistake is to be corrected.
This system is therefore an improvement of the correction technique based on tape-to-tape transfer which is already known from the above mentioned patent to Sims Ser. No. 3,297,124. The improvement consists of utilizing the numbering of the line for stopping the tape-to-tape transfer at the points selected by the operator.
In summary, among the systems based on the tape-to-tape transfer to locate a line to be corrected, the operator stops the automatic transfer by looking at the progress of the printing and keying a stop signal. In Sims Ser. No. 3,297,124 the operator commands the transfer line-by-line and in Gonsior the operator indicates the end (line number) of the portion to be transferred without correction.
Therefore Gonsior improves operation, but still has the disadvantages of requiring two tape stations. Moreover it has the drawback of not providing automatic printing of the line numbers while keying in the draft but rather at a later printing step and then requiring one more sheet printing operation. Another drawback is in that the two tapes have to be scanned in a correlated way during the correction process. This fact, plus the fact that in each tape the access to a line is by skipping a predetermined number of lines rather than by locating the address of the line creates again, as in Bafour, the practical need for the operator to enter the corrections in the exact order according to the respective line numbers. In fact, if the operator accesses the correction location in the wrong order when skipping to a location, he causes the error in the skipped zone to be printed on the final text. This also makes repeated corrections of the same text very complicated for this reason and for the reason that the operator has to repeatedly switch between the two tapes. Moreover, in any case in which correction requires insertions overflowing the original length of a line, the Gonsior addressing system fails.